Philip Maddocks: Billionaires say they are being unfairly vilified for the actions of multimillionaires

Philip Maddocks

Friday

Sep 24, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 24, 2010 at 8:11 PM

Speaking out in the strongest terms yet about their plight, a group of billionaires complained this week that they were being unfairly vilified for the actions of irresponsible multimillionaires.

Speaking out in the strongest terms yet about their plight, a group of billionaires complained this week that they were being unfairly vilified for the actions of irresponsible multimillionaires.

In a striking indictment of the profligate behavior of the quite well off, the super wealthy called on the seven-figure serfs to own up to their role in the economic meltdown and take the heat off the billionaires because “this is what they are paid to do.”

“We expected to take some blame for what happened,” said Chauncy Barnum Farnum Feckwith VII. “What we didn’t expect was to be blamed for what multimillionaires are doing. This is unfair, unjust, and un-aristocratic. Our lives have become a living coach flight.”

Comfortably swaddled in their easily-gained riches and sitting before an elegantly garbed audience of 300 at the Metropolitan Club of New York on Tuesday, the billionaires spoke with barely disguised disdain in their voices about the work of multimillionaires and how it is bringing undeserved shame and disrepute to the truly filthy rich everywhere at a time of continuing pain for the nation’s ruling class.

“Some people come in and say, ‘You are doing too much. Don’t say another word.’ Other people say we should get on the talk shows,” said Mr. Feckwith as he fingered a snifter glass of Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac and laid out the talking points of the super independently wealthy.

“What we are trying to get these multimillionaires to understand,” he said, “is that there is a lot more than just a few zeroes that separates us from them and it’s time they owned up to this law of pedigree. We may be in the same tax bracket but that’s about all we have in common.”

Examples of the billionaires’ burgeoning anger at multimillionaires are legion. Last month, a couple of hundred billionaire protesters outfitted in 10-corner hats marched on the American Bankers Association’s annual conference in Chicago brandishing Pernod-Ricard Perrier-Jouet bottles with cut-outs of bank C.E.O.s.

As the Chicago demonstration made clear, the multimillionaires’ problems aren’t confined to CEOs and dressed-up Pernod-Ricard Perrier-Jouet bottles — and they could have an added cost. Wall Street banks are under pressure from billionaires, and come election time, if the bad press for the richest of the wealthy continues, the billionaires’ wrath might force broader pay curbs, tougher restrictions on what banks can do, and more limitations on the sale of exclusive Champagne to the insignificantly rich.

“We are energized and ready to take back our privilege,” said Mr. Feckwith. “The lesser wealthy are trying to highjack our birthright and we’re not going to let it happen.”

A few years ago, most billionaires would not have cared what those further down the net-worth chain thought. It was enough that the billionaires’ earnings and accounts were wildly successful and incomprehensibly bountiful. Their success spoke for itself. But as politicians have sought to blame anyone with enormous wealth — even billionaires — for the financial meltdown, billionaires have in recent months found themselves on the defensive, facing up to their own rage against multimillionaires and trying to confront a public relations problem that has seemed to be spiraling out of control.

Just last week, Billionaires for Life, a grassroots activist organization of the obscenely rich, called for Americans to renew their faith in the ultra wealthy and announced that it would spend $500 million to help thousands of small billionaires recover reputations that had been unfairly tarnished by the misdeeds of multimillionaires.

Billionaires say they are already losing sleep because of their toxic reputations, and Billionaires for Life says the negative media chatter is dragging on the share price of their children’s allowance.

Recently, the ultra well off have been urging the investment banks and their staffs to cut down on conspicuous consumption and cancel Christmas parties in an attempt to turn the spotlight away from the multimillionaires’ excess.

”We need them to show that they get it, that they aren’t out of touch with average superior Americans, that they understand that their spendthrift conduct is hurting those of more means and that they feel the pain of financially-insulated billionaires everywhere,” Mr. Feckwith said.

Mr. Feckwith acknowledged that even some billionaires had made mistakes in the run-up to the economic meltdown.

“We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret,” he said. ”We apologize. Now it’s time for the multimillionaires to take the heat. It’s the least they and everyone else could do for us.”

Philip Maddocks can be reached at pmaddock@cnc.com.http://pmaddock@cnc.com.

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